I'm tagging this New England but naming it Northeast.
It's been cold these late days in August, down to the fifties this morning, and I saw a picture of Tony S in a parka over in Maine yesterday afternoon. The night before last I wanted a woolly blanket; last night I had one. My wife even complained of the cold — no surprise (she's under-insulated), but she talked about turning on the furnace, too, which isn't her style in August.
The (always reliable) Old Farmer's Almanac has already predicted a cold and snowy winter. They look at the signs: thicker than normal corn husks, pairs of woodpeckers sharing a tree, early snowy owls, the early migration of geese, ducks, and monarch butterflies, thick and frequent August fogs, thick hair on cows' napes, thick-tailed raccoons, ravenous house-mice (check), early hearth-crickets, large spider webs, pigs gathering sticks (who knew?), insects traveling in lines, bees retiring early to their hives, an abundant acorn crop, muskrats burrowing high on river banks, high-placed hornets' nests, fat woolly caterpillars with narrow bands, squirrels gathering early nuts, and halos around the moon. Apparently, pigs have gathered sticks, but I haven't seen a caterpillar yet.
NOAA predicts an average winter — equal chance warm/cold, equal chance wet/dry. Joel Gratz of OpenSnow points out, though, that long term forecasts aren't worth the electrons they're written in. They're all air. We had a bonanza 2014-15, a bust 2015-16, and an average 2016-17. My bones predict a decent season, though, so mark it down, and we'll check back next spring.
In resort news (http://www.newenglandskiindustry.com), Saddleback has been bought by Australians, but nothing much has happened since (@Tony S?). New lifts are going in at Sunday River, Pat's Peak, Waterville Valley, Sugarbush, and Magic Mountain, and Burke and Whaleback are getting new T-bars. Berkshire East has cut the first trail on it's north face project — they picked up a 140 acre parcel on Mt. Institute and the planning board issued unanimous approval. Cannon is widening Mittersill trails (some discussion there, I believe), and Waterville is doing a major expansion (ten trails) on Green Peak. The Balsams claims they'll finally break ground in October.
As Trish has reported elsewhere, the new owner of Mount Sunapee resort (Och-Ziff Capital Management) has been fined $412 million for a bribery scheme that violates the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The fine triggered a public hearing last week, set by New Hampshire's attorney general. No news yet how that might affect Sunapee's expansion plans, which the state has approved but which are controversial among environmental groups.
Lots going on. I'm not ready to scrape storage wax yet, but I've been poking around in the basement, clearing the tuning bench, speculating, and wondering when I should pick up the season pass.
There'll be plenty to talk about in a couple of months, but I figure if the thread launches early, maybe Ullr will favor us this year.
It's been cold these late days in August, down to the fifties this morning, and I saw a picture of Tony S in a parka over in Maine yesterday afternoon. The night before last I wanted a woolly blanket; last night I had one. My wife even complained of the cold — no surprise (she's under-insulated), but she talked about turning on the furnace, too, which isn't her style in August.
The (always reliable) Old Farmer's Almanac has already predicted a cold and snowy winter. They look at the signs: thicker than normal corn husks, pairs of woodpeckers sharing a tree, early snowy owls, the early migration of geese, ducks, and monarch butterflies, thick and frequent August fogs, thick hair on cows' napes, thick-tailed raccoons, ravenous house-mice (check), early hearth-crickets, large spider webs, pigs gathering sticks (who knew?), insects traveling in lines, bees retiring early to their hives, an abundant acorn crop, muskrats burrowing high on river banks, high-placed hornets' nests, fat woolly caterpillars with narrow bands, squirrels gathering early nuts, and halos around the moon. Apparently, pigs have gathered sticks, but I haven't seen a caterpillar yet.
NOAA predicts an average winter — equal chance warm/cold, equal chance wet/dry. Joel Gratz of OpenSnow points out, though, that long term forecasts aren't worth the electrons they're written in. They're all air. We had a bonanza 2014-15, a bust 2015-16, and an average 2016-17. My bones predict a decent season, though, so mark it down, and we'll check back next spring.
In resort news (http://www.newenglandskiindustry.com), Saddleback has been bought by Australians, but nothing much has happened since (@Tony S?). New lifts are going in at Sunday River, Pat's Peak, Waterville Valley, Sugarbush, and Magic Mountain, and Burke and Whaleback are getting new T-bars. Berkshire East has cut the first trail on it's north face project — they picked up a 140 acre parcel on Mt. Institute and the planning board issued unanimous approval. Cannon is widening Mittersill trails (some discussion there, I believe), and Waterville is doing a major expansion (ten trails) on Green Peak. The Balsams claims they'll finally break ground in October.
As Trish has reported elsewhere, the new owner of Mount Sunapee resort (Och-Ziff Capital Management) has been fined $412 million for a bribery scheme that violates the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The fine triggered a public hearing last week, set by New Hampshire's attorney general. No news yet how that might affect Sunapee's expansion plans, which the state has approved but which are controversial among environmental groups.
Lots going on. I'm not ready to scrape storage wax yet, but I've been poking around in the basement, clearing the tuning bench, speculating, and wondering when I should pick up the season pass.
There'll be plenty to talk about in a couple of months, but I figure if the thread launches early, maybe Ullr will favor us this year.
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